A dry dam, Rochester NY, and hiking at Letchworth SP

Wednesday, 17 July

We woke up to a forecast full day of rain and thunderstorms.  A good day to do some indoor adventuring.

First stop was to treat ourselves to breakfast at a nearby diner.  We then re-entered Letchworth State Park to visit the Mt. Morris Dam overlook while the rain was just a light drizzle.  The Mt. Morris Dam, built for flood control in 1952, is known as a dry dam since it’s nine flood gates are only closed to hold back water when necessary, about 20% of the time.  It is largest concrete, gravity, dry dam east of the Mississippi River.  Despite our observing what seemed to be a lot of flow at the Lower Falls yesterday, we could not discern any flow in the river gorge below.  It was as if the dam was dry.  The sign at the overlook also mentioned that the occasional impounding of the river had resulted in sediment deposits, now about 50 feet deep at the face of the dam.

We then headed the hour north to Rochester, NY to visit the George Eastman House and Museum (www.eastman.org).  The museum was founded in 1947 on the estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, pioneer of popular photography and motion picture film.

The docent took us through the George Eastman House and provided a lot of details about the life of George Eastman.  George Eastman did not invent photography - his contribution was to simplify the process of taking pictures using a dry film process, thus making photography available to the masses.  The house tour was quite interesting - it was the largest house in Rochester when it was built.  It has an organ consisting of over 7,000 pipes.  He amassed a lot of wealth, and was compared to Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Firestone.  He gave almost all of his wealth away while he was living.  The docent shared a story of George Eastman inviting the heads of several universities to dinner, and wrote $30 million worth of checks at the end of dinner.  In the 1924!  An interesting article regarding his philanthropy is:  https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/eastman-george

We expected more exhibits about photography.  The brochure said the museum holds unparalleled collections encompassing several million objects.  What it did not say is that only a very small portion is exhibited.  The main photography exhibit was one room, the History of Photography Gallery, with examples of cameras through the years and some photos on display.  The photographs are rotated in part to preserve them as photography by its very nature is sensitive to light.  Clearly the main focus is George Eastman and his house.  As a comparison, the History of Photography Gallery Room is no bigger than the conservatory of the George Eastman house.

We then moved west a couple of miles to visit the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House (www.susanb.org).  The only way to visit is by guided tour.  Linda, our docent, started in the Visitor Center located in Susan B. Anthony’s sister’s house next door.  We then moved to Susan B. Anthony’s house where she lived for about 50 years until her death in 1904.  We learned of the early struggles for women’s suffrage and her association with Frederick Douglas on the emancipation of slaves and later, voting rights for African-Americans.  Renowned for her leadership in the suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony committed her life to the fight for equality for all.  Facing opposition and hostility, she boldly advocated for social justice reform.  Abolition, temperance, education and labor reform, and the rights of married women were among the causes for which Susan B. Anthony tirelessly campaigned.

Still raining, we enjoyed a stop at the Rochester REI store and a nearby Starbucks.  While at Starbucks, the future weather radar suggested the rain might be ending, so we headed back to Letchworth State Park to hike to the Upper and Middle Falls that we did not do yesterday.  A benefit to doing the hike in the late afternoon on a rainy day was that the parking lots were almost empty and the trails were not crowded.  We parked at the very end of the trail, near the base of the railroad bridge, and hiked down stairs to Upper Falls.  

As we watched the mist rise up from the falls and listened to the roar of the water, we both thought of a baby Niagara Falls.  It made me think that this is where water comes to practice for the big event in Niagara. 

The recent rain also made the creeks along the trail feeding the river quite interesting as well.

We then made our way on down the trail to Middle Falls.  Middle Falls is even lit at night.  The trail was closer to the falls making the mist come down like rain, making us glad we dragged our umbrellas on the hike.  Fortunately, we used the umbrellas primarily for waterfall mist.  

As the sun was starting to poke out, we lingered for awhile hoping to see a rainbow in the mist.  Not today though.  

We then hiked back up to the parking area.  The Apple Fitness App said it was 6 flights worth of stairs.  Don’t believe it, there were a lot more than that.

Back at the campground, we settled in for another night.  Since it was so humid, we decided to try the dehumidifier function of Sprinty’s new air conditioner.  It worked very well, and quietly.  We enjoyed the relief from the muggy ambient air.